Tyranny and Trump: An ancient perspective
President has negative qualities of Greek tyrants, but none of the positive ones
Numerous op-eds have been written warning that Donald Trump is acting like a tyrant, that his actions are undemocratic or, perhaps more disturbingly, that the United States is ripe for tyranny.
Turning our gaze to ancient Greek history, we argue that, indeed, Donald Trump shows striking similarities to ancient Greek tyrants. These similarities including demagogic roots, ostentatious lifestyles, lurid tales of sex, contempt for laws and established practices in governing, and preference for pliable and loyal subordinates. Below is a point-bypoint defence of our argument.
To begin, Greek tyrants were notorious for enjoying great luxury and erecting big buildings. They built some of the biggest, grandest, and most garish temples in Greece. While Trump has not built any temples (yet), he has built the 202-metre-tall Trump Tower in New York which is notorious for its Greek columns and 24-karat gold and diamond decorations that puts him in the visual tradition of dictators.
In addition Greek tyrants were often showy characters and eager to make a splash and publicize themselves. Kleisthenes, the tyrant of Sikyon, held an ostentatious contest to choose among suitors for his daughter — a precursor to our contemporary reality shows, including “The Apprentice”.
Moreover, Greek tyrants often acted out of hybris and not eros. There is a host of lurid stories including a tale of incest by the tyrant Periander of Corinth. Trump is known to have violated sexual norms. After his taped account of grabbing women “by the pussy” became public, a number of women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment.
Trump has also made numerous comments about the sex appeal of his daughter, Ivanka, and gone as far as to joke that if she was not his daughter he would be dating her. According to psychiatrists Judith Herman and Lisa Hirschman, the sheer fact of thinking about it, much less articulating such thoughts, is indicative of a father who oversteps boundaries and sexualizes his daughter forcing her to (subconsciously) consider him as a potential sexual partner.
A number of Greek tyrants were also known for co-operating with their own kind for mutual support. Pisistratus helped install Lygdamis as tyrant of Samos after the latter help him become tyrant in Athens.
Likewise, Trump has shown a strong affinity with authoritarian leaders. He called to congratulate Erdogan on winning a referendum that expanded his executive power to the detriment of Turkish democracy, and he has spoken approvingly of Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s AbdelFattah el-Sisi.
More importantly, Greek tyrants took joy in the worst of the citizens because they were flatterers who did their bidding and did not pose a challenge to their power. According to the historian Xenophon, tyrants feared “the brave, lest they dare something for the sake of freedom; the intelligent, lest they contrive against them” and the just, lest the masses long to be championed by them.” But when you do away with the best people, Xenophon continues, “who else is left for them to employ except the unjust, the intemperate, and the slavish?”
Last but not least, ancient Greek tyrants were wealthy men who were not a part of the narrow political establishment. Rather than win power by playing the establishment’s game, they gained it by playing on the discontent of people who felt downtrodden and neglected. Does this sound familiar?
But if Trump shows most of the faults of the Greek tyrants, he lacks their virtues. The better tyrants were competent administrators who rewarded their supporters by addressing their grievances. Trump’s policies hurt the people who voted for him. Cuts in Medicaid and other social services are a prime example.
More crucially, where Greek tyrants made their cities more powerful in foreign relations, they relied heavily on soft power — diplomacy and alliances. By contrast, Trump’s version of putting “America first” has actually downgraded diplomacy and diminished the nation’s role. The nations likely to grow into the vacuum — China, Russia, and Iran — are less likely to benefit the world at large, and certainly more likely to work against the U.S.
Philip Holt ( pholt@uwyo.edu) Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Wyoming. His articles on Greek literature and other subjects have appeared in various journals from the American Journal of Philology to Science-Fiction Studies. Eleni Panagiotarakou (eleni.panagiotarakou@concordia.ca) is a Lecturer at Concordia University. Her work on ethics, animal rights, environmental issues, political philosophy and space exploration has been published in various English and Greek academic venues.